This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.
Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.
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Commentators across the political spectrum claim that humanity faces imminent collapse due to a “fertility crisis.” Is this mass delusion or cynical propaganda?
This was published a couple of weeks ago, but not yet posted in this community.
It's a much-needed skewering of the idea that low birth rates are an existential crisis and that somehow what we need is more human beings on our stressed planet. This crazymaking meme is quickly becoming received wisdom. As the article describes, it's being propagated by a bunch of disparate thought leaders:
Their talking points are pretty well recapitulated here. There's a legitimate argument to be had about the speed of any population decline (because of the stress on welfare systems). But the pronatalists are not talking about that, they're genuinely w
The release of the 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report was announced today at the 90th annual North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The report, produced by a coalition of leading science and conservation organizations, reveals continued widespread declines...
THE CONSEQUENCES OF COLLECTIVE SELF-DELUSION As some readers will know, I recently chose to use a period of necessary travel to isolate myself, for a space, from all forms of purported “news” and “…
With the U.S. on the decline and China on the rise, is a conflict imminent?
Emerging trans-Eurasian heatwave-drought train in a warming climate
Abstract
Since the late 20th century, an emerging atmospheric teleconnection pattern, the trans-Eurasian heatwave-drought train, has intensified remarkably during summer, correlating with a surge in concurrent heatwave-drought events from Eastern Europe to East Asia. Tree-ring proxies, spanning three centuries, reveal that the recent intensity of this pattern is unprecedented in the historical records. In contrast, the circumglobal teleconnection, which historically dominated the continental-scale Eurasian heatwave occurrences, has shown no discernible trend amid global warming. Consequently, this emerging pattern signifies a radical shift in Eurasian heatwave-drought climatologies. The mechanism involves Rossby wave propagation linked to warming sea surface temperatures in the Northwestern Atlantic and enhanced Sahel precipitation, both amplified recently by overlapping effects of anthropogenic warming and natural variability. Land-atmosphere interactions driven by soil moisture defi
Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@climatecasino.net): for the eighth month in a row the 36-month average for Earth's albedo hit yet another record low
Breaking News! Code Yikes! The latest CERES data just dropped, and surprise, surprise, for the eighth month in a row the 36-month average for Earth's albedo hit yet another record low. Gratitude to the folks at: https://ceres-tool.larc.nasa.gov/ord-tool/srbavg
Preface. This is a book review of Twilley’s 2024 book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. It is a really great book, highly recommended. Refrigeration plays a much larger role in our lives than people realize. Much of the cold chain is invisible, especially the ...
We are facing the end of 'the West'. Some of our best science shows the US empire is following the collapse-path of the USSR - but this is also the precursor to the emergence of a new life-cycle for civilisation.
NYU Langone study linked exposure to phthalate chemicals found in plastic to more than 356,000 global deaths from heart disease in 2018 alone. Learn more.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29411776
The EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2025 provides a solid baseline for understanding U.S. energy trends, but it's built on a business-as-usual framework that filters out geopolitical, financial, governance, and ecological risks. It's a conversation starter—not a roadmap. In the real world, shocks and di...
Temperatures south Asians dread each year arrive early as experts talk of ever shorter transition to summer-like heat
What was once considered rare has become alarmingly common, as climate change accelerates the frequency and severity of such events,” said an editorial in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. The country “remains woefully unprepared for the escalating climate crisis”, it said.
In our fragile society, what other hope is there?
Former PM claims net zero policies losing public support and says there should be greater focus on carbon capture
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28962153
Tony Blair has called for the government to change course on climate, suggesting a strategy that limits fossil fuels in the short term or encourages people to limit consumption is “doomed to fail”.
In comments that have prompted a backlash within Labour, the former prime minister suggested the UK government should focus less on renewables and more on technological solutions such as carbon capture.
Blair said people were “being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal”. He said “any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail”.
The paper itself, written by the TBI’s Lindy Fursman, said net zero policies were now “increasingly viewed as unaffordable, ineffective or politically toxic”.
For a more
Pretty much the last nail in the coffin for the idea that there’s going to be a smooth transition out of fossil fuels and into renewables that can rescue the existing high-energy global economy in anything like its present form comes courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Fressoz and his 2024 book More and More ...
Human activities now fuel two-thirds of global methane emissions (2024)
Global average surface temperatures shattered all-time records in 2023 at 1.45 ± 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels (WMO 2024). Worsened by climate change-induced drought, Canadian wildfires burned 18.5 million hectares, nearly three-times more land area than in any previous year on record (NRC 2023). Parts of the Amazon River reached their lowest levels in 120 years of data-keeping and, in places, recorded surface water temperatures near 40 °C (Rodrigues 2023). The world has reached the threshold of a 1.5 °C increase in global average surface temperature and is only beginning to experience the full consequences.
Methane (CH4) is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It contributed 0.5 °C of warming in the 2010s relative to the late 1800s—two-thirds as much warming as CO2 (IPCC 2021). It is also far more potent than CO2 ton for ton, with a global warming potential (GWP) >80 and 30 times more than CO2 for the first twenty years and century after
